Q1 - i was shocked to learn

[MayMay]

Can we discuss why A is a better answer than E?
I see that E would require banking on the chance of getting the right physician, but A also requires banking on the chance that you have one of the said serious diseases, no?

[sumukh09]

E) is incorrect because of the word "sometimes." Only exercising the right degree of thoroughness some of the time does not weaken conclusion because the physician may sometimes not exercise the right degree of thoroughness which could lead to one of the two problems described in the stimulus depending on how thorough or not thorough the physicians were.

A is correct because it undermines the conclusion that patients should not see physicians when they don't feel ill. A) says that the patients may not be aware of the symptoms (and so would not feel ill) but physicians may be able to readily detect them which would weaken the conclusion that patients should avoid seeing physicians when they don't feel ill.

[MayMay]

E) is incorrect because of the word "sometimes." Only exercising the right degree of thoroughness some of the time does not weaken conclusion because the physician may sometimes not exercise the right degree of thoroughness which could lead to one of the two problems described in the stimulus depending on how thorough or not thorough the physicians were.

A is correct because it undermines the conclusion that patients should not see physicians when they don't feel ill. A) says that the patients may not be aware of the symptoms (and so would not feel ill) but physicians may be able to readily detect them which would weaken the conclusion that patients should avoid seeing physicians when they don't feel ill.

hmm but isn't the degree of sometimes still in A?
since it's SOME diseases?

[sumukh09]

E) is incorrect because of the word "sometimes." Only exercising the right degree of thoroughness some of the time does not weaken conclusion because the physician may sometimes not exercise the right degree of thoroughness which could lead to one of the two problems described in the stimulus depending on how thorough or not thorough the physicians were.

A is correct because it undermines the conclusion that patients should not see physicians when they don't feel ill. A) says that the patients may not be aware of the symptoms (and so would not feel ill) but physicians may be able to readily detect them which would weaken the conclusion that patients should avoid seeing physicians when they don't feel ill.

hmm but isn't the degree of sometimes still in A?
since it's SOME diseases?

Nope, because saying "some diseases" and "sometimes exercising the right degree of thoroughness" are not the same thing. A and E both have the quantifier "some" but E is weaker since it says "sometimes."

A) says "some serious diseases" and E says "some physicians"

but A's answer isn't qualified by "sometimes" while E's is. Even if A included the word "sometimes" it would still be correct because it still gives a reason for patients to check with their physicians which is what the conclusion is arguing against.

[WaltGrace1983]

I'm going to further analyze this question for my own benefit.

Too thorough = discomfort / expense of unnecessary tests
+
Not thorough enough = likely to mis some problem
+
It is difficult to judge the correct thoroughness
→
It is generally unwise for patients to have medical checkups when they don't feel ill

The first thing that popped into my head was, "maybe there are some tests that every physician does that would be able to detect certain diseases that have unrecognizable symptoms." It would be very hard to reasonably say that one should only go to the doctor when they feel sick and so I want to find something that shows why this is so.

(A) does this quite well. It shows that there are diseases that patients cannot recognize themselves (undermining the idea that they should only go when they feel ill) and that physicians "can readily detect" (undermining that not being able to always be the-perfect-amount-of-thorough is a bad thing). In other words, this answer choice says, "I see your premises: doctors cannot always know what the perfect amount of thoroughness is but SO WHAT? They can always detect certain diseases and these diseases aren't readily detectable by the patients! Thus, it would be a bad idea to only go to the doctor when you feel ill!"

As for the question about "some." "Some" is a very weak word in strengthen/weaken questions and is usually avoided. However, I think it works here because it really shoots the idea down that it is "generally unwise" for patients to not go to the doctor unless they feel ill.

(B) The amount of time that they spend with patients has no relevance to whether or not patients should/n't go to the doctor when they don't feel ill. If anything, this would strengthen the argument as it may show that the physicians are not being very thorough and won't find anything even if the patient does have a disease or something

(C) This seems to strengthen just a bit as it shows that the doctors NOR the patients can ascertain the degree of thoroughness. If neither one can ascertain thoroughness, it seems to strengthen the argument by showing that going to the doctor might just be a waste of time

(D) We only care about the people that CAN afford them. This doesn't matter.

(E) This answer weakens the premise a tiny bit but that's not our task! We need to weaken the whole argument, especially the conclusion. However, all this does is make remarks on the premise; we need to show how this affects the WHOLE argument. Does have SOME physicians that SOMETIMES exercise the right amount of thoroughness mean that is NOT generally unwise to have checkups when they do not feel ill? Not really. Remember that the conclusion is saying that it is GENERALLY unwise; this doesn't mean that it is ALWAYS unwise or that the physicians NEVER are accurate judges of thoroughness.